07 May 2013 / Categories: Recent Results and Events, 2013 Puente Romano too strong For the second time a team from GB went to the hotel Puente Romano in Marbella from 19 to 21 April 2013 to play against a team of the club of the same name. The hotel group Puente Romano’s Chief Executive is Shaun Leleu who is a very good player himself (ex Wales). He was however only playing in third position which says something about the strength of the other players in their team. We had a great few days thanks to the fantastic hospitality provided by Shaun. The hotel has a very nice tennis centre which is also the venue of big tournaments. We had the opportunity to get used somewhat to the excellent clay courts on the Friday before the match which particularly for Dan Lobb was an exciting occasion as this was his first outing on clay in some 13 years. He had a very tough opponent in Diego Lozano the next day, but hopefully he has picked up the taste of match tennis again, so that we will have the benefit and joy of his company in many an event to come. Graham Neale had a go at the same opponent of two years ago and despite playing a terrific match showing a great deal of patience he lost in two close sets. Raj Ranawat played against Shaun Leleu who has an excellent clay court game which unavoidably generates mistakes by the opponent. Raj was no exception to that, but the game was much closer than the score suggests. By then we were 3-0 down and Simon Curtis was battling away against Ramon Campuzano. Simon has had a motorcycle accident last year and has lost partial sight in one eye. Nevertheless he fought a terrific battle and managed to get our first and (as it turned out) our only win with a third set champions’ tiebreak 10-5. The two doubles matches went both to Puente Romano, but the one of Raj and Simon was only lost by 11-9 in the third set tiebreak breaking the spell of some 16 consecutive tiebreak losses for opponent Ramon! The final score was 5-1 to the advantage of the hosts. In the evening there was a great dinner in the newly refurbished Sea Grill restaurant where we were most honoured by the presence of Manolo Santana, honorary member of the IC of GB since 1964, two years before he won Wimbledon. The evening went on till the early hours of next morning after which those who wanted to play golf were the guest at the Marbella Club Golf Course, a beautifully laid out course demanding precision as well as length. We left one or two balls on the course, but there were also some terrific shots from Simon and in particular Graham, who hit a drive of 270 yards. We are very grateful to Puente Romano and Shaun Leleu in particular for the great hospitality we have enjoyed. RESULTS: PUENTE ROMANO beat IC OF GB 5-1: Diego Luzano beat Dan Lobb 6-3; 6-0 Alex Dvorak beat Graham Neale 6-4; 6-3 Shaun Leleu beat Raj Ranawat 6-2; 6-1 Ramon Campuzano lost to Simon Curtis 6-0; 3-6; 5-10 (champions tiebreak) Diego Lozano/Alex Dvorak beat Dan Lobb/Graham Neale 6-2; 6-4 Shaun Leleu/Ramon Campuzano beat Raj Ranawat/Simon Curtis 3-6; 6-4; 11-9 (champions tiebreak). Click here to view the photo album of the event Previous Article Dunlop Trophy 27 & 28 April 2013 Next Article IC of GB Vs. Fitzwilliam Club 20 April 2013 Print 5233